The Penn Stater Daily—Jan. 15, 2014

We’re a little late today, sorry. Lots of meetings. Productive meetings, fortunately, but they took a lot of time. Anyway, here are some good stories you might have missed over the past few days:

BOT nominations open: It’s that time of year again, with preparations beginning to elect three alumni members to the Board of Trustees. If you’re a Penn State Alumni Association member, if you’ve donated to the university within the past two years, and/or if you requested a ballot in either of the past two years, you should be receiving today a nomination ballot for the election. You can nominate up to three candidates. If you don’t submit them right away, you can return and add names to your list; once you submit, you’re finished. Here’s our earlier piece on the process, which has instructions on how to request a ballot if you didn’t get one, and here’s today’s Centre Daily Times story on the election. Which, by the way, will run April 10 to May 8. The nomination period ends Feb. 25.

A new book on the murder at Pattee: Forty-four years after Betsy Aardsma was stabbed in the stacks at Pattee, her case is still open—that is, never solved. Journalist David DeKok is researching a book on the subject to be published in September, and he answered questions from Onward State’s Jessica Tully. It’s a fascinating interview, especially when DeKok goes beyond the case and discusses how he researched it.

Looking to lose weight? If your New Year’s resolution to do so is becoming a struggle, you might want to check out the Volumetrics diet, developed by Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences and Helen A. Guthrie Chair in Nutrition. It was just named the sixth best diet in U.S. News and World Report‘s 2014 Best Diets Overall Ranking, and it was recognized several other times in the magazine’s report. The main idea: By lowering the calorie density of your meals, you can feel more full but consume fewer calories. Rolls has written several books—with recipes—on the diet.

New pricing structure for football tickets: Starting next season, it will cost less to see the non-marquee teams on Penn State’s football schedule than it will to see top rivals like Ohio State. The university announced a variable pricing structure on Tuesday; this FAQ from the athletic department explains the details. The Nittany Lions will become the fifth Big Ten school to use such a system, The Patriot-News reports. Cheapest tickets? MAC teams Akron and UMass: There are end-zone seats available for $40. You’re going to need to shell out for the Buckeyes: The least expensive ticket is $100.